I Saw Him
by champion of the deities
Summary: At the end of third year, what if Harry was a second later when it comes to facing the dementor horde? Would it change anything?


Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Harry Potter whatsoever

AN: This has been an idea of mine for a long time, never tried before as I didn't want to butcher the new (I think? Let me know) concept. But seeing as nobody else will, here we go.

I Saw Him

 _...Somebody who looked strangely familiar…but it couldn't be…_

(A few moments before across the lake)

" _Come on!" he muttered, staring about. "Where are you? Dad, come on—"_

 _But no one came. Harry raised his head to look at the circle of dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. It was time for the rescuer to appear—but no one was coming to help this time—_

 _And then it hit him—he understood. He hadn't seen his father—he had seen himself—_

Realising that nobody was coming to save him and therefore he had the power to cast the spell himself, Harry flung himself out of his cover in order to save his past self, his best friend and his godfather. Only to be knocked to the ground a blur that ran to his intended destination and shouted "Expecto patronum!"

Being knocked to the ground wasn't what cause Harry nor Hermione shock, no it was the shape the patronus took. Running to the middle of the frozen lake was the most magnificent stag either of the two teens had ever seen, it was older and fiercer than the one Harry had produced during his quiditch match against Ravenclaw and even from the distance they could see the massive antler rack that indicated he was a dominant buck, the leader of the herd.

As the creature charged across the lake with its head down ready to ram the foul soul sucking guards of Azkaban Harry managed to pull his eyes away from the buck to look at the hooded figure that had knocked him down to the ground.

Hermione, from her position in the foliage, could see Harry moving to get up and desperately wanted to help him up but froze as she heard the faint screeching and snarling of Buckbeak and Professor Lupin respectively, approaching where she was hidden. Not wanting to draw the attention or the irate hippogriff or werewolf toward herself, Harry and their rescuer she chose to stay in the bush rather than approach Harry

Harry couldn't see much of detail other than the already obvious fact the person was a wizard or witch, they were wearing a strange style of robe that looked like it was made from a scaly hide, making the connection between this material and his herbology gloves he realised it was from some type of dragon. Getting off the floor, where he had been stupidly laying whilst observing this stranger, he approached the hooded figure. Feeling secure in the knowledge that once the stag had gone he knew he saw himself alone he reached to remove the magical's hood.

As soon as he touched the hood of the robe the mysterious magic user turned and in one smooth motion banished Harry to the treeline on reflex. In doing so several things happened.

As the concentration was split it caused the stag to fade away now there were no dementors to fight or magic to sustain it, Harry's attacker/saviour turned back to the lake worried that the dementors would return without the constant threat of the patronus.

The last thing that happened was that the rapid movements of turning to and fro finished what Harry started and caused the hood to fall off revealing a wizard that look like a much older Harry with the same shaggy hair, allowing the pre-time-travel Harry to see a strangely familiar figure.

Post-time-travel Harry who was once more on the ground due the stranger, rolled over to see his doppelganger turn towards him and ask "what the hell is your prob- Harry! How are you here, you were just there?" the man went from angry to what Harry could only identify as scared, for some unknown reason.

As Harry was about to respond the three people on the shoreline heard a howl from not far into the forest, as the man's head snapped to the forest letting out a cry of "Moony!", Harry saw the moon cause a glint on the man's eyes revealing them to be a deep hazel colour.

This made all the piece fall into place for Harry and as the man ran, jumped and transformed in to a huge stag, identical to his patronus, Harry also shouted.

"Dad!"…

To be continued when I can think of a decent reason for James Potter to be alive but not be taking care of Harry.

Yes this chapter is short even by my standards but this whole scene would have taken between 1-2 minutes at most.

Let me know what you thought, if it is original and follow to see if I do upload more or leave it as a one-shot.


End file.
